The Attorney General, defending the prime minister today told the Supreme Court that there was no need for sanction to file a complaint against former telecom minister A Raja in the 2G spectrum scam. The question of sanction came only after the court concerned took cognisance of the complaint.
He was answering the charge that the prime minister took inordinate time to consider Janata Party President Subramanian Swamy’s plea to prosecute Raja. Swamy has since said that he is not personally holding the prime minister responsible for the delay.
Attorney General G E Vahanvati submitted before a bench of Justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly that neither the Prevention of Corruption Act nor the Criminal Procedure Code insisted on prior sanction to file a complaint against a public servant — in this case, a serving minister.
The counsel asserted Swamy’s argument that he should get sanction from the prime minister even before he could file a complaint was “misconceived and premature”.
“There is no question of consideration of sanction when no complaint was filed at all. It is a settled law that there is no question of sanction merely on the institution of the complaint,” the attorney general said. He added the stage for grant of sanction was when the court wanted to consider the question whether to take cognisance of a complaint.
Swamy replied that he sought prior sanction to save time. He had a choice to either go to the court with a complaint or seek prior sanction. If he had gone to the court, it would have demanded that he get sanction to prosecute the offender. So, he would have been back to square one. Therefore, he sought the sanction first, he clarified.
The arguments on both sides are inconclusive and will continue on Wednesday.
Swamy also pointed out that according to the Supreme Court judgments, three months were the upper time within which sanction to prosecute an offender should be given. This was not followed in the case of Raja.
At one stage, the judges wanted to know from the attorney general how many requests for sanction to prosecute ministers were pending with the central government. To this, the answer would be given to the court later during the hearings.
